Shakespeare in Canada Essay example -- William Shakespeare

Shakespeare in My CanadaIf you petition my dad about Shakespeare, he will quote you a soliloquy fromMacbeth. If you ask my dad about Kathakali, he will instantly quote you a poetic epicfrom the Mahabharata. If you ask my dad about how Shakespeare and Kathakali fittogether, in truth, he is not quite sure. I was not sure of the reasons myself, when I firststarted thinking about what Shakespeare in my Canada meant to me, why I nowadaysthought of Kathakali. Kathakali is an indigenous art form of Kerala, the southernmoststate of India, and my fathers home. It is an exceedingly expressive form of dance-drama,originally performed to tell the stories of the major Indian epics, the Mahabharata andthe Ramayana. In recent years, there have been attempts in both India and Canada toadapt Shakespearian works to the Kathakali form, with varying degrees of success.Through exploration of two such attempts, as well as brief examination of criticalresponses to them, I would reason that Kathakali i s in fact a viable form through whichShakespearian works can be adapted in a Canadian and/or post-colonial context.As we all know, Shakespeare himself based many of his plays on already existingplays and stories. It is fitting then that Shakespeares works have, from their inception,been both the product and the origination of an ongoing explosion of re-creation (Fischlin,1). As a country formerly colonized by the British, Canada is especially familiar withShakespeares near-universal power to lend a sense of cultural authenticity to any setting,be it school-house stage, or tavern theatre. Today, despite being more than a century past 2its colonial days, Canada is still struggling to define itself as a nation. Although we ma... ...onewith large(p) potential to open new artistic doors in both Canada and India in the future. 6Works CitedFischlin, Daniel and Mark Fortier. General Introduction. Adaptations of Shakespeare.Eds. Daniel Fischlin and Mark Fortier. London Routledge, 2000.K handwani, Sudha. A Century of Indian Dance. Kala Nidhi Fine Arts of Canada. uncommitted . 2005.Raina, Arjun. Arjun Raina. visible(prenominal) . 2004. 7AppendixImage 1Annette Leday performing Stuff of Dreams at Kala NidhiToronto, 2004Available from ________________________________________________________________________Image 2Arjun Raina performing his KhelKali adaptation of Othello at Leela a ElahiDelhi, 1997Available from